FRANCE LIBERATION DE PROVINS, September 1944 issue. stamp,... Lot 42

FRANCE LIBERATION DE PROVINS, September 1944 issue. stamp, intaglio engraving by Pierre Gandon, 4 F ultramarine, portrait of Maréchal Pétain, overprinted in red with a large Lorraine cross on the face and the words république française 1944, VERY RARE OVERCHARGE - mint stamp ** deluxe, signed SUARNET. note: André SUARNET (1898-1972), novelist and philatelist, author of "Les bleus de France". Involved in the Resistance, he was responsible for this issue. All stamps bearing the effigy of Marshal Pétain are normally overprinted on the obverse - i.e. upside down when used on the mail - and it was as a symbolic gesture to show the deposed Marshal that A.. Suarnet took this initiative. The fact that on this stamp from André Suarnet's collection, the overprint is right-side-up is a curious anomaly and a rarity... in short, a reversed overprint... right-side-up...